“Listen as if you would have to repeat.” — Anders Fors, 17th January 2016, Kampenhout (BE)

In real life conversations, we listen to people with our reply in mind. As the other person is talking, we are preparing our reply and often can’t wait saying it. In the worst case, this leads to us interrupting the other person and in the majority of times it makes us miss parts of what was being said.

I believe one of the worst crimes you can commit on an improv stage, is not being able to repeat what has just been said. Be it by a narrator, your partner in the scene, by people in the scene while you’re out or an audience suggestion.

Quote from the Improv Nonsense website: “Follow the follower is a good metaphor of what happens in an improvised scene. Taking things from each other and making them stronger. Listening and observing from others is more valuable than thinking of awesome things.”

Another way of saying to really connect to your partners on stage. Listen to everything they say, see everything they do. If you’re open for change, you’ll automatically get inspired by all that input. Treat them all as generous gifts, and you’ll be just fine.